Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com! Still making my way through the 1930s to fill in the gaps....
Today I'm talkin' about the 1938 Best Pic nominee Pygmalion, based on the play by George Bernard Shaw, itself inspired by a Greek myth about a sculptor who falls in love with one of his creations, causing her to come to life. The play and film however are about a professor of linguists named Higgins, who as a social experiment takes a poor flower girl Eliza under his wing and teaches her to be classy and sophisticated, hoping to pass her off to his contemporaries as a duchess. Eliza agrees to the arrangement as a way to advance socially but Higgins is very callous in his training and sees her as subhuman, often brutal in his dismissiveness. As she becomes more and more educated the two of them develop chemistry together, but Eliza also begins to assert her independence, with Higgins both annoyed and intrigued by her newfound confidence.
This premise would be adapted again as the stage musical and later Oscar-winning film My Fair Lady (among other adaptations), and is a thematically rich story of class and gender roles. Eliza is strong-willed but also of low self-esteem thanks to her station in life. As Higgins coaches her she becomes prim and proper in social settings but starts to rebel against his demands and scorn in private. Shaw's original version of the play ended with Eliza choosing complete independence from Higgins, but audiences and critics wanted a happier ending and so with great reluctance he eventually revised the play, resulting in two different versions. The film follows the revised story, which does kind of temper the original intent. However the chemistry between actors Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller is very strong and Higgins himself completes a character arc from snobby bachelor to a more accepting and tolerant man.
Both lead performances are quite compelling, Howard has excellent sardonic timing, making you simultaneously loathe his air of superiority and also find him amusing. But Hiller steals the show, giving essentially two very distinct performances. When we first meet her she is loud and uncouth, a destitute cockney flower seller, but by the end her physical and vocal performances have transformed into a "proper" English lady. Both actors received well-deserved Oscar nominations.
Pygmalion is an interesting blend of humor and social commentary. I had mixed feelings about the ending; I get why audiences would want the expected resolution but at the same time I agree with Shaw that it somewhat weakens Eliza's arc.
Overall I give the film *** out of ****.
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